The Blog of E. Dale Nixon

“In the synagogue, when a person is called to the Torah during the public reading, he recites two blessings. The first declares that God chose to give His Torah to the Jewish people (“chose” means “gave them a responsibility”). The second emphasizes that this Torah is true.” (p.322)

ONKELOS on the Torah: Understanding the Biblical Text
by Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner

My pastor, Howard, often exhorts the congregation on Sunday mornings for our choice to be together in worship. As I work my way through the delightful English translation of the ancient commentary Targum Onkelos, I was reminded that ’choice’ (free-will) generally implies ‘responsibility.’ God gave Adam & Eve a choice to which they responded irresponsibly and we still suffer the consequences. As Sunday is the preferred day of worship for most Christians, when given a legitimate option to be with your church family in worship, choosing to be elsewhere diminishes both the corporate worship and the blessings you would have received, if only you had chosen to participate. There are many other choices to be made today, may the Spirit of Christ guide yours.

Missional thinking moves the planning process out of the realm of asking “what we going to do next?” to asking “what are we really trying to accomplish?” Too often we do something because it’s what’s been done before and we are more confident that we know how. It may not be what is needed, but at least we have a high potential for “success,” even if that success has no particular definition beyond “we did something.” However, if we start with the desired results, clarify the veracity of those results in the larger framework of God’s kingdom, work backwards to a viable process which bears fidelity to Christian ethics in achieving the stated results, then we have a much more likely chance of doing what we are called by Christ to do.